Daija Peters no longer watches games like she used to.

Instead of following the action, she watches the players. She looks for a limp, a hesitation or someone getting up slower than before. While fans track the game, she is usually watching behind it, looking for signs someone might be hurt.

“My heart rate is really high during a game,” she says. “A good day is not having to work.”

Peters is an undergraduate student studying athletic therapy at York University, and a student athletic therapist for the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold women’s basketball team. Most spectators only notice athletic therapists when they run onto the field after an injury. But that moment represents only a small part of the job. 

Athletic therapy combines emergency care, injury assessment and ongoing support for athletes, often under pressure. Therapists spend practices observing movement, preparing equipment and checking on players long before an injury occurs.

Before entering the profession, Rachel Di Lecce, a certified athletic therapist in Toronto, misunderstood the role herself.

“I just thought, ‘okay, they just go help them and bring them off the field,’” she says. “I didn’t really know what happened behind the scenes.”

Peters says she had the same assumption before entering athletic therapy at York.

“I thought it was going to be taping a little bit, covering a couple of cuts, massages here and there,” she says. “It’s just so much more than that.”

Before they can stand on a sideline, students spend years preparing for the role. According to the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association (CATA), aspiring athletic therapists in Canada must graduate from a CATA accredited program, obtain a First Responder certificate before working games and pass the CATA National Certification Exam. Practical hands-on training within undergraduate programs teach injury prevention, assessment, treatment, management and rehabilitation. 

Preparation matters because athletic therapists are often the first person an injured athlete sees.

Comfort Tieku, a student athletic therapist at Sheridan College studying in its Bachelor of Athletic Therapy program, remembers treating a wrestler early in her training. Tieku says she was “freaking out,” but adds, “you live and you learn.” Classroom simulations, she adds, cannot replicate real injuries because “you’re dealing with their emotions.”

The work also extends beyond injuries. According to PhysioDNA, athletic therapists help prepare athletes for competition, monitor their condition and work to prevent injuries before they occur. They also help athletes return after injury, adjusting treatment and exercises throughout recovery.

Natalie Kierpiec, also an athletic therapy student at Sheridan College, says athletes often confide in therapists. “You’re their safe space.” 

Because therapists spend so much time around teams, Kierpiec often notices issues athletes may not tell coaches. Maintaining that trust, they say, becomes an important part of the job.

The role can also require difficult decisions. Di Lecce says that sometimes, coaches and even the impacted player themself want to continue playing, despite their injury.

“They are saying that they can go, but they really can’t,” she says. “Our job isn’t about making people happy…it’s player health and safety.”

Despite the responsibility, therapists say the profession is often misunderstood. Di Lecce says many therapists are advocating for greater recognition and wages comparable to other healthcare professionals.

At the professional level, the pressure becomes immediate. Colby MacLean, an athletic therapist with the Belleville Senators, says injured players are often anxious or unsure of what has happened in the moment after a play that results in bodily impact.

“The number one thing you always have to do is just calm them down first,” he says.

MacLean says therapists guide athletes through what happened while assessing the injury and determining whether they can safely continue.

Athletes often look to athletic therapists for clear answers in uncertain moments. MacLean says part of the role is helping players understand what an injury means, whether they can return that day and what recovery may involve. Even after a game ends, he says, follow-up treatment and monitoring continue as athletes begin rehabilitation.

A “jack of all trades,” as MacLean describes it, athletic therapists are integral to any sports team and are prepared to lend a hand in various situations. 

“If an emergency happens, we’re trained. A big injury happens, we’re ready for that. Little things, you know, we take care of everything.”